The invention relates to a mainsail and/or mizzensail furling device and more particularly to improvements in offsetting a drum and swivel from the mast.
It has long been recognized that it is possible to furl the jib or other stay sails. This has been accomplished by roller-furling the jib or genoa. The larger mainsail has created other problems.
Mainsail roller-furling has been accomplished by either roller-furling the mainsail within the mast as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,835,804 and 4,030,439 or by permanently affixing the swivel device and/or drum to the mast such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,042. In each of the prior art devices it has been necessary to either construct a mast which is specifically designed to contain the furled mainsail or to otherwise permanently alter the mast rigging.
The prior art devices have either been extremely expensive or have rendered the mast unusable for "conventional" hauled sails.